Tata creates inexpensive water purifier

Swach uses rice-husk ash and nano-silver in its filter, which works without electricity; targeting poor families

By

Arlene Chang

Updated July 6, 2010 12:01 a.m. ET

MUMBAI—Thomas Edison, widely known as the father of the electrical age, would probably not have imagined that a product inspired by his most famous invention—the electric light bulb—would be one that wouldn't use electricity.

Tata's Swach (the Hindi word for clean) is a water filter that uses natural materials and nanotechnology to purify water, doesn't need electricity, meets U.S. Environmental Protection Agency norms for bacteria and costs less than $22. It was inspired by Edison's electric bulb, but, unlike that invention, it was developed for consumers in rural India who don't always have access to electricity.

ENLARGE

The Swach, which means "clean" in Hindi, purifies water with the aid of rice husk ash, a byproduct of making polished rice.
Tata Chemicals

"Right from the beginning, we were very clear that this product had to be developed keeping in mind households that didn't have electricity," said Sabaleel Nandy, head of the water-purifier business at Tata Chemicals Ltd. "It was always meant to be a poor man's device."

When Tata Chemicals and Tata Consultancy Services Ltd. first began work in 2006 on the idea of a water-purification system made up of natural materials, the brief given to the innovation team by R. Gopalakrishnan, vice chairman of Tata Chemicals, was: Do for drinking water what Edison did for lighting through his electric bulb.

Mr. Gopalakrishnan was inspired by the concept of an earlier water filter conceived and developed by Tata Research Development & Design Centre, the Pune-based R&D division of TCS. That filter used rice-husk ash, which is derived after burning rice husk or chaff, a byproduct of polished rice, as the main filtering component. The water filter, called Sujal, used a matrix of materials—such as rice-husk ash, pebbles, Portland cement, nylon mesh and sand—and screened out contaminants and sediments. But, with its purification capability being 85%, it didn't guarantee freedom from waterborne diseases.

Ratan Tata, chairman of Tata Sons, wasn't satisfied. He wanted the company to develop a water purifier that was 100% safe. Enter Mr. Gopalakrishnan. He challenged his team to create a bulb-like water purifier that consumers could fix on any existing water-storage unit. Something that was high on functionality, low on cost and 100% safe.

The result: After four years of toil, Tata unveiled the Swach last December. In a country like India, this water-purification system may just prove to be a boon. In the year through March, electricity demand exceeded supply by 10.1%, according to the Central Electric Authority of India.

Mr. Nandy calls the the Swach "the world's lowest-cost water purifier," providing safe water at about 0.22 cents a liter, at a cost of just 999 rupees ($21.36) for the entire unit and 299 rupees for a refill cartridge.

The Swach's cartridge, a key component of the system, resembles Edison's electric bulb and is made up of a composite of rice-husk ash (a highly porous material derived out of paddy husk) and fine particles of nano-silver, which inhibits bacteria growth.

Just like an electric bulb, the cartridge also has a fuse. In this case, the fuse prevents water from passing through once its purifying capacity of 3,000 liters of water is exhausted.

According to a 2006 Unicef report, more than 125 million children under age 5, most from developing countries, live in households without access to a clean drinking-water source. Swach hopes to bridge this gap between technology and the basic human need of clean drinking water.

"There is no awareness about the need for filtration among most Indians, with a mere 6% of urban households and 1% of rural households using water purifiers," said Ashvini Hiran, chief operating officer at Tata Chemicals. "Hence, the potential of the Swach is immense."

The company commercially launched the Swach in January in the states of Maharashtra and Karnataka and hopes to expand across India by the end of the year, reaching sales of a million units.

"With our product, we are hoping to target nonusers and those who couldn't afford water purifiers due to affordability reasons and lack of awareness," said Mr. Hiran. "And we hope to achieve that through our awareness programs."

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